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Faith-based Organizations and Welfare State Retrenchment in Sweden: Substitute or Complement?
- Charlotte Fridolfsson, Ingemar Elander
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- Journal:
- Politics and Religion / Volume 5 / Issue 3 / December 2012
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 20 December 2012, pp. 634-654
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Local governments in Europe are facing difficulties in meeting citizens' demands for welfare provision. This opens new opportunities for profit as well as non-profit providers of social welfare. Faith-based organizations (FBOs) are one type of non-governmental organizations addressed by governments to complement or replace parts of public welfare provision. This article gives some examples of FBOs in action as providers of welfare in a European context, with a particular focus on Sweden. Following the introduction, the second part locates the phenomenon of FBOs within the scholarly debate about secularism/post-secularism as related to multi-level governance. The third part gives an overview of potential roles of FBOs in welfare provision combating poverty and social exclusion, illustrated by a few examples from European contexts. Focus in the fourth part is upon the role of FBO engagement in Sweden as developing after World War II. It is concluded that no system is all encompassing in catering to those who suffer from poverty and social exclusion. There will always be a need for the competence and avant-garde role potentially provided by FBOs. However, due to historical circumstances FBOs in Sweden have been, and still are, complementary rather than an outright alternative to public welfare provision.
seven - Changing policies: how faith-based organisations participate in poverty policies
- Edited by Justin Beaumont, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, The Netherlands, Paul Cloke, University of Exeter
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- Book:
- Faith-Based Organisations and Exclusion in European Cities
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 07 September 2022
- Print publication:
- 03 October 2012, pp 155-172
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Summary
Introduction
Promoting participation in decision making is seen as a cure against many problems of policy making in modern societies, with the expectation that participation would ensure better quality of decisions, and close the gap between politicians and citizens. However, shortcomings in participatory processes have also been identified, such as the relation between decision making outside and within the political structure as a result of the formal electoral system. There is furthermore a middle-class bias in decision-making processes, which has led to the (in)voluntary exclusion of groups such as single mothers/parents, minority ethnic groups and the less educated in general.
The introduction of a faith dimension complicates the picture of participation even further. On the one hand, if faith-based organisations (FBOs) are close to the population (especially those groups who are excluded), then they improve their chances of participation. On the other hand, particular value systems may sometimes lead to the exclusion of certain groups from participating in FBOs, and strong cohesion within groups may lead to a closing off of people vis-à-vis society at large. In this chapter we present evidence from our fieldwork on FBOs in Belgium and Sweden to address these issues.
In this chapter we look at the participation of FBOs in larger networks, but also touch on the participation of members and clients in those organisations. Indeed, the power and/or authority of any organisation also depends on the characteristics of its clientele and on the different forms of capital that members – professionals as well as volunteers – bring with them into the organisation. We start with the almost classic statement that different degrees of participation exist, and not necessarily in the form of a ‘ladder of participation’, meaning that they are to be ranked hierarchically (Arnstein, 1969). While participation may have a horizontal as well as a vertical dimension, the ‘steps’ of the ladder are relevant to identify different forms of participation.
We begin looking at what FBOs are and why their participation is a relevant problem in present society and welfare states. One of the principles guiding this chapter is that we use concepts such as faith-based non-governmental organisation (NGO), FBO or NGO (some of which are faith-based) more or less interchangeably. We are interested in the position and role of FBOs in the current context of more horizontal power relations and an increased interconnectedness of different governmental and non-governmental actors.
four - Faith-based organisations, urban governance and welfare state retrenchment
- Edited by Justin Beaumont, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, The Netherlands, Paul Cloke, University of Exeter
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- Book:
- Faith-Based Organisations and Exclusion in European Cities
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 07 September 2022
- Print publication:
- 03 October 2012, pp 81-104
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Summary
Introduction
In the context of successive financial crises and diminishing welfare provision offered by European governments, new demands and market conditions open new opportunities for profit as well as non-profit providers of social services targeted at socially excluded people. This chapter provides an analysis of faith-based organisations (FBOs) and their relationship to central–local government and related changes in welfare provision aimed at combating social exclusion in the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden. The central questions addressed are:
• Why are FBOs of interest in times when financial and economic crises trigger governments at all levels to reconsider their responsibilities as providers and protectors of social welfare?
• How do FBOs in different welfare regimes operate at the local level in the context of welfare retrenchment and/or redesign?
• What are their (faith-motivated) interests and strategies?
• Are FBOs in a process of replacing public authorities as welfare providers, or are they, at best, capable and willing to give complementary support at the margin?
A substantial part of the current forms and practices of FBOs in Europe, especially the Christian ones, have a long history, mostly pre-dating the welfare state. Thus, to understand the current manifestations of FBO practices in different countries we also need to be aware of their historical roots and successive developments, thus following the methodological line of thinking stated by Romanillos, Beaumont and Sen in Chapter Two of this volume, that is, that state–religion relations should be grasped in ‘their historical and geographical specificity.’ The Swedish case was partly chosen because it is a country where local government has an outstanding tradition and position in terms of welfare provision, and partly because it is dominated by a longstanding Lutheran state church. In contrast, Spain has a Catholic heritage, and postwar development, where local government, after formal democratisation (1978) co-administers, or has gradually taken over, social responsibilities from FBOs and other non-governmental organisations (NGOs). The Netherlands, finally, is a hybrid between a social democratic and a liberal welfare state (in the language of Esping-Andersen), with a reformist tradition of quite extensive involvement by Protestant (Calvinist) and Catholic FBOs as well as other NGOs in social affairs, where central government has increasingly downloaded responsibilities to local governments while retaining fiscal centralism, and where the developments also ‘have a clear leitmotif of a shift from collective to individual responsibility’ (van Oorschot, 2009, p 365).